Season of the Dead
by metaldragon868
Summary: When Salem put the Grimm upon Remnant, she gave them the decry to make sure all but a select few were dead. So what is a Nuckelavee to do when it encounters a young, silver, soul with a heart as still and cold as the ash she crawled out of? Take the child to it's maker, of course.
1. Chapter 1

Season of the Dead

Chapter 1

In the southern wildlands of the Continent known as Anima, there once stood a forest. This forest once teemed with life, far from the bounds of man. It was not, however, untouched by man. In this forest there once stood a small cottage. Built by the hands of a woman seeking a safe life far from the dangers of a world that wanted to harm her and her daughter for no other reason than the danger held in their blood.

It was a good life, for a while. It was nice, simple as it was.

Now…

Now it is desolation.

Where the forest once stood tall, bright and green, it now lays cleared. Trees burned away, small fires still burning unchecked. The remnants of an inferno that swept through the area, destroying all in it's path. There is no life here, not anymore. The grass is gone. The wildlife is gone. The cottage is gone.

All that remains are corpses.

Then, in the massive grave, a twitch of movement.

In the arms of a woman shrouded in white, something awakens. Consciousness flowing back into her, she stirs. Her eyes open to reveal silver orbs, and she moves once more. She looks around trying to get her bearings.

And finds herself staring into another familiar pair of silver eyes.

Stumbling back, the girl looks on in shock at the figure before her. A woman crouches over her, her arms outstretched to wrap around something, as if to shield it from some calamity.

 _To protect me_ the girl realizes.

The look on the woman's face is one of love, but pain and fear. Her eyes are alight with cold silver flames flickering in their sockets. Her skin is pale and lifeless. Her body is frozen in place. For a moment, it seems like she's just frozen in time. Then the fire in her eyes begins to die.

As they die, piece by piece she disappears. First her skin flakes away, becoming nothing more than white dust in the wind, almost like fluttering white petals. But then more and more falls away. Her hands and arms crumbling.

Tears streak down the girl's own face, but she doesn't know why. She doesn't know why looking at this makes her hurt so much.

Transfixed by the sight of the disintegrating woman before her, she does not notice as the pieces of her start flowing into her own body.

Soon, all that is left is they lingering eyes of silver fire looking back at her, and her silver white cloak holding her form. As the fires fade, a voice echoes in the mind of the girl.

" _Remember Ruby, I will always love you…"_

"Ma...mamma?" the girl whimpers, tears freely falling down her face as she hears her mother's voice for the last time.

But it's too late. The cloak falls to the ground, the only remnant of the woman once known as Summer Rose.

So it was that in that charred and dead land where nothing lived, that a small girl wept for her mother, who sacrificed her own life to save her daughter's. The girl wept for minutes, hours, perhaps even days. She wept until her eyes ran dry, until her heart had emptied out all of its feelings.

Finally, she stopped. Feeling cold and empty, she finally rose. Lost, confused, and with no purpose in life, the young girl took the one thing she had to latch on to, the silver white cloak of her dead mother. Wrapping her petite form in it's warm embrace, she walked through the charred land.

All around her she saw the death in the land. She had no more tears to weep, and at this point she felt numb. After the death of the one thing she was connected with, everything else felt trivial.

She walked for days, never noticing how she never felt hungry or tired. She walked out of the dead land into the rest of the forest. Even still, she found nothing and no one. She was all alone, with no signs of life to see.

Until the day she wasn't.

It started out as every day did. The sun crept up over the hill, spreading its rays over the silent and cold land. The silver eyed girl could feel its warmth upon her pale skin and turned from the blinding bright spot in the sky. She kept up her directionless march through forest, finding no life in sight.

She saw it before anything else. It was just a hazy shadow in the distance. Anyone else would have dismissed it, but she didn't. Something tingling in her mind told her to watch carefully, something whispered in her mind that this shadow was more than just a shadow.

Then the shadow _moved_.

It flitted through the forest, disappearing in the trees.

Anyone else would have been disturbed or unnerved by it. They would have been on guard, suspicious of some monster jumping out at them from behind them. But the young girl did none of these things. It had been the first glimmer of movement and life she had seen in days, which at this point was as long as she could remember.

So instead of running away, she ran toward it.

She ran and ran, never tiring, never faltering, just an endless steady pace of running. She could see the shadow in the distance, moving away from her. It was too far to see what it was, and even worse it was faster than her.

She could see it leaving her behind with a contemptuous ease as if it didn't even notice her. She panicked as she envisioned losing the one and only sign of life she had ever met.

"Don't leave me!" She cried out futility, tears welling in her eyes as the thought of being alone rose again.

"Wait!" She yelled, liquid trailing down her face as her fear of being alone, the only thing she had left to feel, tore a hole in her heart.

And yet, despite all that, the shadow never faltered, never slowed, never noticed her.

 _No!_ She wailed inside, not wanting to lose out.

 _I have to be faster!_ She thought, pumping her legs even harder.

 _I can't lose them_

 _I don't want to be alone again!_

And with those thoughts, she felt something inside her build and grow, becoming something powerful. The more she wanted to catch up, the more it grew. The more she willed herself to go faster, the more she could feel it develop.

Then she just felt something inside her snap into place, and like that, it happened.

Everything suddenly blurred around her and she felt a sense of vertigo. Then it all came to an abrupt halt. Unable to cope with the sudden change in velocity she tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground. Shaking the leaves from her head, she looked behind her in confusion.

Behind her lay a clear trail in the leaves, with several ghostly white ashes falling in her wake.

 _What was that?_ She wondered, distracted by the unusual phenomenon.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of leaves being crunched under foot. Turning slowly, she found herself facing a hoof. Attached to the hoof was a leg, black as night, that seemed to rise high into the sky. Tilting her head up, she saw a horse joining the leg. But it was no normal horse.

For a normal horse doesn't have bone white plates covering its head like a skull

And a normal horse also doesn't have a human like torso sprouting out of it's back.

The entire creature had the same jet black skin all over it. At the same time, calling it skin didn't appear entirely accurate. She could see dark veins and muscles that seemed to blend in with the skin, all pulsing and throbbing in tune with itself. In some places, over top of this, were several bone like plates, in some ways looking like armor. The horse head had a horse skull like bone plated growth around it, leaving it's burning orange eyes glowing out of the skull sockets. It breathed loudly, a black smog pouring out of its nostrils with each breath, but quickly being diffused in the air.

The human torso had more bone plates on it, but most notably was the head and arms. It's arms were plated in more armor and spikes than most of the rest of its body, save the skull. The long, spindly but muscular arms ended in two human like hands, covered in bone plate like clawed gauntlets.

Its head resembled a human skull, but warped and twisted into a demonic and dark version of itself. Two horns sprouted out of the forehead of the creature, curving up and backwards as went. The face was stuck in grim toothy stone faced look, the teeth looking noticeably more sharp and savage than a normal human's. Just like the horse head, two burning lights burned in the sockets of the human skull, filled with an inhuman rage and hunger. But they also held something else.

Intelligence.

The girl could see an intellect and wisdom of a creature older than countries that feared it.

She could see those eyes looking at her, investigating her, and analyzing her.

It was at this moment that something in the back of her mind rang out with words she couldn't truly remember hearing before. Despite having never seen it before, something inside her knew what it was.

This was the horseman of death, pestilence, famine, and war.

This wasn't just a grimm

This was one of the Ancient Grimm

This was the Nuckelavee.

* * *

For the first time in long time, so long that it could be considered a new feeling all over again, it felt something strange.

It was a foreign feeling, one unnatural to it and it's kind.

Standing, or, well, in this case sitting, before it was something it had never seen before. While that feeling wasn't entirely new, it felt much the same when it encountered humans with guns and flying machines for the first time, this time it was different.

This time it didn't know what to do.

The thing before it was a girl, small and young. That wasn't a problem, it had killed many children, infants, and even still pregnant mothers without an inch of hesitation.

She was also a silver eyed one. That was an issue of concern, but it had dealt with them before. Granted hers were active, in a way, but she was likely too young and inexperienced to know how to use them properly, let alone actually being capable of fighting in some meaningful way.

No, the issue was none of these things, instead it was something quite peculiar.

She was dead.

The silver eyed little girl lying on the ground, wrapped in a silver white robe, and staring up at it was dead.

And yet, she was also alive. In a way.

She had undoubtedly used her semblance to catch up with it, meaning she had an aura and as such still had her soul. She had also tripped and fallen, then turned to it when she recognized it's presence. And she was most certainly staring up at it with wide silver eyes, taking in it's full form.

But despite all of that, the girl was dead. It knew this for a fact, it could sense the way the girl's spirit was untethered to the earth. It could also sense the fact that the girl's body was cold as a corpse, and her heart still as stone.

 _Mother's decry was to kill all humans_ It thought, tilting its head in consideration, it's spine loudly creaking and cracking all the while.

 _And yet, this one is already dead...but not._

It also considered the fact that it's creator, it's mother, didn't want it to kill _all_ humans, just the "heathens" as she called them. The "corrupted" and "lost".

 _Come to think of it, mother had quite a lot of names for them_ It made note.

Refocusing back on this issue, it remembered several examples of humanity she permitted to live, and even a few it was supposed to protect.

She especially kept an eye out for those she considered valuable or containing that "special spark".

 _Perhaps this is what she meant?_ It pondered.

Eventually it shook its head, unable to come to a decision. It's job, it's role in life was to spread death and decay. Usually there wasn't much issue with the task, but sometimes things got interesting. This, however, was far from its area of expertise.

In it's younger days, it might have just killed the girl again, just to be sure, but it had since learned that it's mother valued those humans with a "special spark", and considered them indispensable. Not to mention, it was one of the ancient ones, hardly a youngling. She would find it old enough to be able to restrain itself and not kill everything it didn't understand.

So with that in mind, it decided to head towards it's creator in search of guidance. The sound of leaves crunching under ivory hoof rung out again as it slowly turned in the direction of her home, before it began trotting onwards.

"Wait!" the girl said in a desperate plea from behind it.

It ignored her calls, disregarding her importance as it did with most humans.

Suddenly it felt an impact on it's back. Spinning around and expecting an attack, it found, to it's surprise, that the girl had managed to jump upon it's equestrian back and latch on. It stared at her for a moment, and she stared at it. Burning red met cold silver as the girl waited fearfully for it to retaliate whilst the Grimm tried to discern what she wanted.

In the end, it did what could be considered a shrug, and left her to her own devices. She was young, and no real threat to it. Sure, the active silver eyes might have been dangerous, but she was too young and inexperienced for it to really be a danger to something like it. It could kill the girl anytime it wanted, should she become too much trouble. Plus, it sensed no ill intent from the girl, only fear and loneliness.

Fear and loneliness indeed. The girl could hear some part of the back of her mind calling the ancient grimm before it a monster, saying that it was dangerous. Under normal circumstances she might have headed them, but here and now, she was lost and desperate. She had nothing, no one, and no path.

And here before stood something she could finally connect with. Something alive, something somewhat human, something the deep depths of her mind found familiar, even if it was warning her to stay away. Those were the distant whispers of a dead people, and under these circumstances, she found them easy to ignore.

A habit that would only grow and grow as she walked her path in life.

So it was that the young girl lost and stuck between life and death latched onto Ancient Grimm, old and patient enough to allow her to.

* * *

"So...what's your name?"

It turned it's head ever so slightly to look at the source.

The girl was still riding upon it's back, looking up at it with wide and curious silver eyes. It had no fear of it, something it found curious and odd. Most creatures had, at the very least, an instinctual fear of it. The fear of something far older and stronger than itself. It was a natural fear, nothing to be ashamed of. And yet this girl had none of that.

 _Strange_ It thought.

"...My name's Ruby." she supplied after a moment of its silence.

She had done this a few times, trying to stir up a conversation with it. At first it had a degree of fear, and shied away from it. But it wasn't the same fear she should normally have, less a fear of something that could kill her in an instant and more a fear of meeting someone for the first time.

"So...you're not going to tell me your name, are you." She said, looking down in dejection as it once again remained silent.

To be honest, it couldn't have responded even if it wanted to. Despite resembling a human in many ways, it lacked the capacity for speech. Sure, it could technically communicate in other ways, but the actual action of talking was physically impossible. All it could really do was rasp, at best screech, but that was rare and not terribly comfortable.

But it didn't actually feel like responding. It didn't actually care about the child that much, tolerating her presence but not actually valuing it.

So, sensing she was done with this current attempt at communication, it turned back to face forward, directing its primary attention to something far more interesting.

It had taken a straight line path towards its creator, not bothering with any paths or trails or specific detours to human settlements. Despite that, humans seemed to spread the plague of their race everywhere, and as such it was bound to encounter them.

There was no great and sudden realization that happened, it wasn't slammed with the scent of their existence. It simply finally got close enough to recognize the presence of a collection of humans.

 _Most likely a village_ It reasoned.

It could tell that the village was in the same general direction of his path, and it wouldn't be much of a detour to go through the village. At most it'd lose a week, which, to it, was nothing. So with that thought, it made a subtle shift, heading toward the village in question.

"Hey, where are we going?" She asked, noticing the change in direction.

 _To reap more of your kind_ it thought with a growl.

"Oh...ok." She responded.

It paused for a moment, glancing at the girl on it's back curiously.

 _Did she just understand me?_ It wondered

Instead, the girl just stared up at him with those cold silver eyes. They held their locked gaze for a moment, before it let out a raspy breath, and turned back to the path ahead.

It was too old to worry about such things.

* * *

 _A/n:_

 _This...this is old._

 _This is an old collab fic I'm doing/did with Luna. We came up with it a while ago, started working on it, then it kind of died. I think that was a year ago._

 _Then more recently, I reminded her of it, so now we may, perhaps, possibly, start it up again. But it also inspired me to take a look at it._

 _Now_

 _Fuck if I know how much this'll continue. I got 2 more chapter waiting to be dumped, but I don't have too much time to invest in this story. So updates might be slow, if they come._

 _It depends on how well this story does._

 _This is also far from my highest quality project, for which I am not sorry, because this is just a fun little side thing. It's purely for fun._

 _Maybe some people will like it._


	2. Chapter 2

Season of the Dead 2

In a certain town, things were going normally. It was a foggy morning, but they didn't let that stop them. They still went about their business as normal. It was thick, but they had encountered fog before. By noon, as the fog still hung in the air, they began to worry. It showed no sign of dispersing; if anything it only got thicker.

Then the coughing started.

It started small, just a few people here and there.

But it spread like a plague. Before long, everyone in the town was coughing, some just a little every now and then, but others, the old, weak, and sick, were coughing up blood. By night they realized the danger of the fog, but it was too late, all they could do was stay inside and board up their doors, hoping to keep the deadly smog out.

Some had ventured out, seeking help, or just to escape. The problem was that few in the town had vehicles or even horses. Escape just wasn't an option for them. All they could do was ride out the storm and hope it would pass.

Many cursed the big city for this, figuring that this smog was a result of pollution from the urban centers they sought to avoid. They thought that even here, in the heart of nature, they were not free from the corrupting touch of man.

Then they heard it.

The sound of hooves clapping against the hard ground. It was a slow, methodical pace. The pace of a horse taking its time, one in no hurry. They had thought all had long since left, so a curious few looked out their windows and doors to see who was riding through.

And so it was, to their horror, that they found two sets of burning red eyes looking back.

It was here they realized that there was no escape, there was no "riding through the storm", for death itself had rode into town, and it was here for all of them.

Black smoke poured from the horse's mouth of the Grimm, mixing with it's poisonous fog, increasing the density of it in the area to unbearable levels. By now the once light grey fog had turned dark and smokey. In this dark fog it's eyes shone like malevolent beacons, spreading fear and despair to all who looked upon it.

And the Grimm itself felt satisfied, taking in the darkness pouring out of all the humans in the town. All of them filled with such fear and despair, and all of it feeding it. Soon they would die, and it would reap all of their souls, consuming them for its own power.

 _I suppose it's unfortunate, however_ It thought, considering the being on it's back

 _It would have been nice to take her to mother while she still maintained her un-life_ It all but sighed.

It turned to glance at the dead girl, taking her extended period of silence as a sign that she had perished under the effects of its poisonous breath.

So it was that it's eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise from what it saw.

She was fine.

The girl was fine.

Instead of being fearful, confused, or even having the slightest cough, she was looking around the town with wonder and awe in her eyes.

 _How is it not killing her?_ It wondered, _It should have destroyed her lungs by now_

That's when it noticed something, something it should have realised before.

She wasn't breathing.

She was already dead, reanimated through some unknown means, and as such had no need for mortal things like food, water, and even air. As such, it's likely the case she didn't have any of it's smoke in her lungs, it's like she doesn't even really need lungs at all.

So while humans all around her choked and died on the breath of death, she sat happily upon its back, taking it all in, her chest still and lifeless.

Before it had a chance to think further on the matter, it noticed something moving in the fog in front of it. Turning it's human torso to attend to the incoming matter, it saw four humans walk out of the fog, each of them wearing something around their mouth to try and block out the fog, either but each of them impromptu and ineffective, such as a bandanna or welder's helmet.

In each of their hands was a weapon. One was a woman with a short bow, another was a man with a longsword, a woman a spear, and finally the last one was a man that held a rifle, ammo packs strapped all over his heavy jacket.

It almost smiled, letting out a quiet raspy sound that one might call a chuckle

This was what they had to defend the town? These are the only ones in the town that held enough fire in their gut to fight it?

 _They don't even have aura_ It thought, amused at their attempt.

Still, it had to respect their willingness to stare death in the face and fight back. As weak as they were, these humans were wolves, not sheep like the rest of their town. They would die on their feet, fighting to their last breath.

The rifleman and the bow woman both ran to the sides, flanking it as they hid inside abandoned buildings. The other two faced it, the spear woman and the swordsman charging at it.

The swordsman reached it first, and slung his blade at the legs of the beast before him. At the same time the spear woman attacked it's flank, trying to disable its other leg.

In a flash of movement, however, a cry rang out and blood soared through the clogged air.

Looking over in fear, the woman saw, to her horror, that the swordsman had fallen to the ground, his chest cut in half from the hip to the shoulder. Sliced open like a pig, his organs and blood poured out onto the ground, mixing with the dirt into a bloody mud. The Grimm held some kind of spear made of what looked like bone in one of its hands.

Turning it's burning gaze upon her, the woman could see the end of the spear growing further, curving like a claw, and turning it into some kind of scythe made of bone. Releasing the spear from her grip from shock and fear, she idly noticed that it was stuck in the hide of the Grimm, not that it seemed to really notice.

She barely had time to blink, to say a silent prayer, before her own life was ended. Her head rolled to the ground not a moment later, shortly joined by the rest of her body falling beside it.

The Nuckelavee's victory was short lived, and a shot rang out, and a bullet shattered against it's skull. It turned to look at the source, a store across the ways from it, only to get another bullet slamming into it's armored head. Now mostly irritated, it threw the makeshift scythe at the building.

The massive bone scythe crashed into the building, slicing through walls and columns with ease, causing the whole structure to collapse. While they man might not be dead, he was likely now in no condition to fight back. Besides, the smog would take him soon enough.

It was pulled from those thoughts when it felt a sharp pain in it's upper back, between its shoulder blades. All in all, it felt little worse than a bug bite, but it was still an annoyance.

Turning it's head to look in the direction the pain had come from, it saw another arrow flying at it. Instead of hitting the Grimm again, the arrow struck low, piercing through the body of the silver eyed girl on his back. The girl let out a gasp of pain, before falling off it's back and hitting the ground.

Now rather annoyed that its passenger had been struck, it ended the archer quickly and dismissively.

It raised its arm, pointing its wrist at her as she readied another arrow. Before she could launch it at it, a small bone spike, the size of a shortsword, was launched out of its wrist at such blinding speeds that it flew through the air and impaled the woman through the heart.

With that taken care of, it directed its attention back to its passenger. The girl was on the ground, looking at the arrow in her chest in surprise and pain, blood pouring from her mouth. The Nuckelavee was curious how her status as being dead would affect whether she would live. The arrow was lodged in the area her heart would be, if she was a normal girl she would be dead. But seeing as how she was handling its deadly breath just fine, it's possible it was little more than a flesh wound to her.

Its attention was once more stolen by several gunshots impacting it's back.

 _Not dead after all, I see_ It thought, turning to face it's assailant.

But the rifleman ran past it, instead scooping up the girl in his arms and trying to run away, likely in some bid to save her from it.

The man didn't make it far before the Ancient Grimm sliced his back upon with another blade grown from its own bones. He made it several more steps, before collapsing to the ground in agony. Blood poured from his back as a fit of coughs erupted from his mouth. In his death throes, he rolled onto his back, releasing the girl from his grip.

He had fought hard, and he had given it his all, but he would still die all the same. Still, it was enough to earn a modicum of respect from the Grimm, something most humans didn't think it had. So the old rider moved to give the man a swift end, when something strange happened.

The girl, the one he had tried to save, the one that had been shot in the chest by an arrow, the one that was dead and yet not, she made a move.

She stumbled over to him, crawling over his chest, compelled by some unknown desire.

The girl, for her part, felt driven by a hunger. Something she can't truly remember feeling. She didn't know how to express it in words, but she could feel the calling, she could sense what it was telling her to do, she could sense what she need to do to feed the cold hunger within her.

The man was on the edge of life, his time as come and he had minutes left at best. He looked up to the smog filled sky, so dark it might have been night, and despaired. Then he spotted that pair of small silver eyes looking down at him. The orbs seemed like the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, though it's probably just trick of his dying brain.

The way they seemed to glow in the dusky light, the way they seemed to call to his soul, it had to be a trick.

And yet, the Nuckelavee saw a light, glowing, wispy, smoke-like thing flow from the mouth and eyes of the dying man and into the girl's. Her eyes shone with an ethereal power as it happened. All the while it knew what she was doing, but could scarcely believe it.

She was consuming the man's soul.

Something no human should be able to do.

And yet, when she was done, the man's head fell to the ground, his eyes looking absently with no life remaining in him. His soul was gone and he was dead. Looking at the girl herself, she seemed to radiate for a moment, her own spirit growing in power. The arrow lodged in her chest was pushed out and replaced with healed flesh. The girl looked up at it with a satisfied smile, not at all put off by what she had done.

 _...why is she not disturbed by this? Most humans would find all this quite distressing._ It wondered idly.

In truth, the girl had no reason to be frightened. Logically, yes, most humans should have a reason to panic, to be afraid.

But she was reborn in death. The very first thing she saw in her new life was her mother dying before her. She awoke in a land of death. Death has been more of a companion to her than life. And humans? She felt no special attachment to them, not so much that watching the Grimm kill them made her feel distressed.

As far as she could tell, this was normal, and this was right.

She had latched on to the Nuckelavee, and for the time being, it was her guiding her light. Something that would only grow as time went on.

Shortly thereafter, the Ancient Grimm left the town. The girl resting on its back. For some reason, consuming the soul had cause her to feel tired again, prompting her to rest as soon as she got situated on it's back. Her small and frail arms were wrapped around it's waist to keep her secured. As her sleeping form hugged it tight to herself, the Nuckelavee considered what this all meant.

The girl was far more interesting than it had thought. A strange new thing it had never encountered before, a mystery waiting to be unraveled, things few and far between for something as old and experienced as it.

 _Ruby_ It though, looking back at her.

 _I believe that's what she said her name was_. _I ought to remember that._ It considered. _I'm confident I know what mother meant, now._

 _Because this young girl most definitely has a Special Spark._

* * *

A/n: I kinda forgot to post this. So now we're going on a monthly basis. Yay.


	3. Chapter 3

Season of the Dead 3

 _A/n: Now this chapter was written by my co-writer in all this, Luna. The differencesin our writing may or may not be subtle._

It was midday when the girl appeared at the village. She was dressed in just a tattered white cloak and torn clothes that may've used to be helpful at one point.

"E-excuse me!" she would desperately try to get a passerby's attention and would even sometimes grab at their loose clothing only for them to wrench it out of of her grasp and give her a dirty look. And thus triggered a beautiful friendship.

Another girl, this one also dressed in rags that could barely be called a sad excuse for clothes, approached the brunette child.

Turquoise met silver and the girl with orange hair offered the brunette something. "Bread? For someone like me." The grey clad child gave it a sceptical look before gently taking it up and taking a small nibble off of it.

"What's your name?" Her turquoise eyes looked into sparkling silver.

"Ruby," it was a small and curt reply and it seemed like that was all the ginger girl was going to get, her smile faltered for a second.

"Well I'm Nora, how 'bout we stay together so that we can keep the baddies away?"

"The… baddies?" Ruby tilted her head to the side.

"Yeah! The other people that don't really like us. You know, the ones that just gave you a dirty look and didn't help out," Nora's eyes glazed over for a second and a far off look occupied them before she snapped out of it with a small shake of her head.

"Sure. I guess I could stay for awhile." Ruby replied, a voice of indifference to the situation was all that came out. Nora's smile seemed to get smaller again.

"Well, just follow me and we'll be to my home in no time!" Nora's energetic voice seemed to carry around the whole street; the people returning home gave them a glance before their mouths contorted into a scowl and they looked away. Ruby stood up to follow.

And so Nora and Ruby walked the streets under the rising, shattered moon. Its cycle was almost complete and the moon would be full in a few days. Nora was rambling, a nervous tick she had developed because of her anti-socialness and not interacting with people outside of begging; Ruby didn't really seem to be paying attention but Nora continued on anyways.

Nora suddenly stopped and swung her arms out, seemingly presenting something of magnificence and great importance; which it was, it was home after all.

"Welcome to my home! You like it?"

"It's… roomy?" Ruby seemed to be critiquing it with a tilted head and Nora's smile didn't waver in the slightest.

"So… you don't like it," Nora's grin was no longer there, instead replace with a frown, her frail arms lowered along with her head.

"No, I like it," Ruby muttered something else under her breathe, "it just needs a bit of decoration."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe I'll get something for it one day… but enough of that! Let's head inside."

"Hmmm'kay," Ruby seemed to hum the response out as she headed for the "door" into the "house." Just before she entered she took a glance over her shoulder and looked down an alleyway and into the forest surrounding the village, squinting her eyes she made out a few specs of red and then hurried inside.

And thus ended the first night for the two girls, Nora and Ruby.

~~~ _A week later_ ~~~

"You know, we've been stockpilin' quite a bit of food… Are you sure you've been eating," Nora's eyes met Ruby's in a fit of worry for her new friend, "you've also been looking pretty skinny." Which was also true.

Ruby seemed to be at a loss for words at what Nora had just said. No one had really cared for her as much as the turquoise eyed ginger has, and she learned very quickly that "I don't have any souls to eat. Oh yeah can you please give me some food" was never a good excuse. So, she just said a simple, "I'm fine, I don't have to eat very much or often," which was also true.

Nora just waited patiently while Ruby thought as they continued their little game.

 _Maybe we can spare her when we raid the village?_ Ruby ignored the thought and went back to her task at hand: entertain both herself and Nora until tonight.

Currently they were in an alley, bouncing a ball to one wall and it returning to the other person. But that was getting very boring very fast especially since they had been at it for an hour.

Fog had started to surround the village late last night and Ruby had immediately shot Nora down when she said they could play hide and seek. The ball was tossed again and before it could come back to Ruby a hand darted out and snatched it out of the air. Nora's eyes trailed up and she almost merged herself with her companion, getting behind the white cloak and peeking over Ruby's shoulder.

Nora heard Ruby scoff a little at the sight of them and her grip on the cloak tightened.

"What do we have here? Two pieces of _trash_ having fun? I didn't know objects could feel emotion," all of the three boys laughed at the jab at the two girls. Nora withered and shrunk into herself even more.

"Look," the boy laughed out, feigning surprise, "they don't even speak!"

Nora was frozen stiff. One might've even taken her to be a statue if they didn't quite look. Ruby took a hold of Nora's arm and moved in front of the ginger.

"Hey, trash! Look at me when I'm talking to you!" The leading boy stomped forwards with a glint in his eyes and pushed the duo down, a loaf of bread falling out of Ruby's cloak and settling in between the boy's feet.

The boy continued on forward, his feet thumping against the ground. When he reached the two, still sprawled across the dirty ground, he lifted his foot up higher and brought it down upon Nora. He did it again… and again… and again.

No attention was being paid to Ruby, that much was obvious. She was just a bystander to them. Another kid who would do nothing to protect someone else, which was not particularly true. She would protect some people, if they provided anything of importance to her.

Before any of the watching parties could comprehend anything, Ruby had bent down and picked up a loose stone. It wasn't big or small, rough or smooth. It was just another random stone on the ground. Ruby's hand pulled back, her body shifting with the motion, and then it flew forward with her fingers snapping out and the stone bolting.

The rock was like a bullet almost. It cut through the air with a whistle and shot into the boy. Where his thigh used to be, was now just a bloody mess, with said blood spilling onto the ground from his felled body and his hands desperately trying to stop anymore of the red liquid from spilling. The others didn't know what they we're seeing and ran out of the alleyway; the other boy who hadn't spoken a word to the girls just stood with a shocked and horrified expression...

Nora hadn't spoken since the encounter. She had hardly reacted at Ruby's attempts to talk to her, only giving small grunts of acknowledgment. She also hadn't moved when the white cloaked girl had picked her up and walked back to their home. And it wasn't until a few minutes after Ruby asked a question, she answered it.

"Are you okay?"

"...No." Timid and not like her usual preppy and upbeat tone.

"Oh…" She didn't know how to react, it had been awhile since she had helped someone other than her mother, the woman she had seen die in the forest. "Well, if you need to talk or… something? then just come to me."

And just like that, Ruby walked out from under the balcony. Whether it was to give Nora some privacy or to escape the awkward situation, neither knew.

~~~ _A Few Hours Later_ ~~~

It was late evening when the fog started to flow into the village and only a day later when the first person started to hack up blood and eventually dropped dead.

Absolute chaos soon followed. People were frantically running around and into the forest, hoping to run through the cloud of death surrounding the village, their screams ripped the air to shreds. But worst of all for Nora, Ruby was nowhere to be seen.

It took a minute for her to comprehend that she was no longer on her feet. Her face was constantly being crushed and pushed against the ground and blood was gushing out from her now broken nose. Panic dashed through her veins as she tried to pull air in through her nose but found she couldn't. Alternatively she tried to bring air to her lungs using her mouth but the bodies stepping on her kept pushing the air back out.

She was going to die. It was a depressing realization, one that made her stop struggling and just lay there. That was when it happened; she was on the brink of unconsciousness. Darkness was surrounding her vision and her body felt light, almost like she was floating up and up into the air. Until of course _something_ pulled her back down to the land of the living.

It was a boy, the same one from before that had helped her and Ruby from the three other kids, and he was dragging her out of the crowd and into a nearby alleyway.

"Come on, we have to go!" He was shouting at her, that much the ginger girl could tell, though what he was saying was a mystery. She tilted her head in confusion, more likely it was exhaustion or from a head injury, and looked at the boy with her clouded eyes.

He wasted no more time trying to coax her into leaving. One of his arms wrapped under her armpits and the other brought one of her arms around his shoulders before he started to walk her out of the other end of their temporary safety. But when they exited they did not see a way out, they ran right into the problem.

It looked like a man riding on a horse… if the man didn't have legs and their torso was attached to the animal.

 _A creature of Grimm._

Nora's breathing picked up again, hyperventilation latching its way onto her yet again. She was sure she was going to die again this time.

The beast turned its head and its eyes bore directly into hers, right into the girl's soul. Unending intelligence and absolute death was all that she was greeted with. No pity for the ones who cannot survive, no pity for the ones who could manage to survive either.

Neither Nora or the boy snapped out of their haze as the beast raised its claw, more smog billowing out of its mouth.

Before more smoke could leave the creature's body, the creature stopped in its tracks and looked onto its back before giving a what seemed to be a small shrug and turning around.

That was when the duo saw the thing on its back, a girl to be more precise. She was like a ghost: her white cloak shifted around her small body that no longer seemed to have a definite form. The mist that was thousands of times thicker around the beast had no effect on the girl and she sat tall upon its back.

Nora went to shout something before coughing racked her form and blood spilled from her mouth in bursts. The boy held something up to her mouth.

"Use this. Breath in when I press down the top," the boy stuck the inhaler into her mouth and pressed down, air refilling her but not releasing the deadly fumes inside of her.

"Ruby…" Nora moaned the name out and it echoed around the emptied street, tears started to stream down her face.

"Come on, we need to leave," the boy started to drag Nora along to the border by the arm. She just stumbled along after him.

One thought seemed to prevail in their minds, above even survival, as they left their home town turned graveyard. The girl in the white cloak and with silver eyes to match.

 _She was almost ethereal, only a ghost of her former self… and it was absolutely beautiful._

* * *

 _A/n: And that's the last of the pre-written stuff._

 _It's mostly up to Luna now if we continue. I've got a lot of shit on my plate so I'm only going to commit if Luna will.  
_

 _Otherwise...don't think I'll pop up here again any time soon._


End file.
